Chicano iconography in the United States encapsulates Mexican culture through historic and contemporary material representation in murals, tattoos and t-shirts. Of these images, seven appear most frequently: pre-Columbian symbols, skeletons or skulls, cars (especially low-riders), drama masks, Zoot Suiters, jail images, and the Virgin of Guadalupe or roses (Goldman 1997, 125). Each image carries its own significance in the Chicano community, providing wearers/artists an opportunity to exhibit pride in Mexican identity, represent themselves as members of their ethnic group, and, in many cases, to resist the colonial authority on which modern border policies are built (Goldman 1997, 130).

 

Specifically, the Virgin of Guadalupe is depicted as dark-skinned, appearing more similar to the Mexican community she represents than the Anglicanized version depicted in European Catholic communities. She appears most often in murals, other forms of Chicano visual artwork, and on t-shirts. Although she is a prominent Catholic saint, recognized within the Church as the mother of Jesus Christ, her visage has been used in Mexican struggles against dominant social and political powers, including those which have been spearheaded by the Spanish who first introduced Catholicism to Mexico (Goldman 1997, 130). 

 

Leaders of the Mexican rebellion in 1810, and again in 1910, carried the image of the Virgin Mary while leading their armies against the Spanish, as a symbol of hope and protection. Modern revolutionaries continued the traditions, and in the 1960’s her image represented Mexican farm workers who went on strike to protest abuse and deprivation in the agricultural positions in which they worked (Goldman 1997, 130). Today, t-shirts and murals of the Virgin of Guadalupe are used as an emblem representing values such as love, unity, peace, and appreciation. Once a source of solace and cultural continuity among the indigenous populations of Mexico, she has continued her influence “as a powerful symbol of connectedness between the members of the Chicano community” (Goldman 1997, 131).